postcard R.M.S. Appam Steam Ship 9704 for Sale

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postcard R.M.S. Appam Steam Ship 9704 For Sale

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postcard R.M.S. Appam Steam Ship 9704:
$14.65

SSAppamwas a British steamship owned by the British & African Steam Navigation Company, a subsidiary ofElder Dempster Shipping Limited, that was captured at sea by the German raiderSMSMöwein 1916. The Germans took the ship to port atHampton RoadsinVirginiain the United States where theSupreme Court of the United Statesdecided who would get ownership of the vessel.

History[edit]SSAppamat Hampton Roads flying a German flag

Appamwas built in 1913 byHarland & WolffinBelfast, United Kingdom. She had agross register tonnageof 7,781 and was 425 feet long with a 57 foot beam.[1]

On 11 January 1916 the ship leftDakarin Senegal forPlymouth, United Kingdom, carrying 168 passengers and 133 crew members. Among the passengers were: SirFrancis Charles Fuller, the BritishChief Commissionerto theAshanti Region; and SirEdward Merewether, theGovernor of the Leeward Islands, and wife. By 15 January communication with the vessel stopped and the vessel was thought to have sunk when an empty lifeboat was spotted.[1]

In actuality, withWorld War Iraging, theImperial German Navymerchant raiderSMSMöwecapturedAppamon 15 January 1916. The Germans put aprize crewaboardAppam, and, under German control as aprize,Appamseparated fromMöweon 17 January and made her way to theUnited States, where she went into port atHampton Roads, Virginia. The United States was aneutral countryat the time, soAppam\'s British owners filed suit inU.S. federal courtto haveAppamreturned to them. On 29 July 1916, U.S. Federal JudgeEdmund Waddillof Virginia directed thatAppam, along with the cargo remaining aboard her and the proceeds of her perishable cargo that already had been sold, be returned at once to the ship′s British owners.[2]

TheGerman Empireappealed the decision to theSupreme Court of the United States, which heard the case asThe SteamshipAppam,243U.S.124 (1917). On 6 March 1917, the Supreme Court found in favour of the British owners, handing down a decision that a belligerent nation may not bring prizes of war into a neutral port. On 28 March 1917,Appamwas returned to her British owners and renamed SSMandingo, before reverting to her original name at the end of the war.[2]